Their brilliant solution is to keep stores and businesses operating seven days a week, tighten sick-leave rules, push people to work longer, and gradually raise the retirement age. Let us be clear about what is actually being proposed because this is not yet a literal order requiring every German to work seven consecutive days. It will merely spread the same amount of consumption across seven days instead of six while increasing labor, energy, transportation, and operating costs. Germany does have an absenteeism problem, but politicians have seized upon it as a convenient excuse to blame workers for national stagnation. Germany cannot work its way out of political stupidity by operating seven days a week.